SISS for South Africa – Who can apply

To be eligible for Swedish Institute Study Scholarships (SISS) for South Africa, you must be a citizen of South Africa. You must also follow the application steps of university admission, and be admitted to one of the eligible master's programmes in time.

The call for applications for master’s studies starting in the autumn semester 2018 has ended. Information on this page is only about this call that ended. Information about next call may be available in the late autumn 2018 for master’s studies starting in the autumn semester 2019. The eligibility criteria as well as the application procedure and key dates may differ from this year.

Country of citizenship

Citizenship of South Africa: for this particular scholarship programme, you must be a South African citizen but may, at the time of application and admission, reside in a country other than South Africa, including Sweden. Residents in South Africa without a citizenship of South Africa are not eligible to apply.

Dual citizenships: if you have dual citizenships and both are eligible for SI scholarship programmes, you should choose only one of the citizenships when applying for SI scholarships. This means you can only apply to one SI scholarship programme or one category/initiative within SISS. Applicants who apply for more than one of SI scholarship using more than one citizenship will be disqualified.

Citizens of other countries: Citizens of other countries other than South Africa cannot apply to SISS for South Africa, but may apply to other SI scholarship programmes.

Exceptions

Regardless of other eligibility criteria, you are not eligible for the SI Study Scholarships for South Africa if you:

have already resided in Sweden for cumulatively two years or more, prior to the scholarship period (August 2018);

have a Swedish or EU/EEA citizenship, a Swedish permanent residence permit or a temporary work- and residence permit based on work or on family ties with a citizen of Sweden/EU/EEA country who has a temporary or permanent right of residence in Sweden;

have previously been awarded a Swedish Institute scholarship for master’s level studies or research at a Swedish university/university college;

already hold a degree from a Swedish university/university college;

are currently enrolled in a study programme at a Swedish university/university college; or

Eligible programmes

University application

Regarding the university application, you must also:

be liable to pay tuition fees in Sweden, according to the information at University Admissions. Kindly contact University Admissions directly regarding questions related to application and tuition fee.

have paid the application fee for master’s programmes at University Admissionson time before 1 February 2018.

be admitted (including conditionally admitted) to one of the eligible master’s programmes by 6 April 2018. You can only be awarded a scholarship for the master’s programme you are admitted to by 6 April. Master’s programme to which you are listed as reserve will not be considered. Therefore it is important that you make sure to decline reserve places on time so that your admission will not be changed. Check the instructions on how you should answer your admissions at University Admissions. Please directly contact University Admissions if you have any questions. If you are only listed as reserve and are not admitted to any of the eligible master’s programmes, you will not be considered for an SI scholarship. There are no scholarships available for late admissions.

Support for the application fees

As stated above, you need to pay an application fee of SEK 900 to University Admissions for your applications to universities in Sweden. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) in South Africa will support up to 15 applicants with the university application fees. Read more about the support on the website of the DHET. For questions related to this support, please directly contact the DHET.

Work and leadership experience

Work and leadership experience is not a requirement for citizens of South Africa who apply within SISS for South Africa. However, it will be a merit if you have work and leadership experience. In this case, please use our templates to provide 1-2 letter of reference and proof of work and leadership experience. You can find the templates on the webpage for SISS for South Africa.

Leadership experience involves the experience to lead other colleagues/organisations, mandate to influence the development strategy for the organisation you work at, allocate tasks to colleagues and familiarity with decision-making processes.

If you are in a current employment, you are advised to discuss your application with your employer. It is also your responsibility to ensure that you will be granted a leave of absence from your work or will be released in time, in case you are selected for a scholarship. SI will not intervene in this.